Feet of Clay (1961) User Reviews (3)

Fun, competent British crime film

[nova-63 · 6/10 · 24 May 2009]

A Probation Officer, whom operates a hotel for troubled youth, is murdered. The public are disgusted that this woman who devoted her life to helping others has been stabbed to death. Scotland Yard has picked up a suspect (Brian Smith) who was staying at the hotel and he confesses to the crime.

A defence attorney (Vincent Ball) is assigned to defend Smith but the boy refuses to help Ball. This seems curious to Ball as Smith is obviously hiding something. A visit to the hotel run by the murdered woman only raises more question. The hotel is now being run by the dead woman's two assistants (Hilda Fenemore and Robert Cawdron) and they seem to be hiding something as well.

Ball's break comes when he realizes a young woman (Angela Douglas) staying at the hotel is Smith's girlfriend. Ball presses Smith with questions and the lad finally admits the truth. He didn't murder the probation officer, but he fears his girlfriend committed the crime. Ball disagrees and thinks Fenemore and Cawdron are the killers. An even bigger shock comes when Smith reveals the murdered probation officer wasn't the sweet woman everyone thinks she was. In fact, she and her two assistants sell narcotics and use the kids to drop off the goods and collect the money.

Ball tries to get Douglas out of the hotel before Fenemore and Cawdron suspect the truth. But it's too late, Scotland Yard calls the hotel but Fenemore and Cawdron claim that Douglas has run away. Now it's a race against time as Ball rushes to the hotel before the evil pair can kill Douglas.

Decent UK programmer

[gordonl56 · 7/10 · 17 January 2010]

FEET OF CLAY - 1960 UK

A policeman walking the night beat on the docks sees a man flee from a dark alley. He has a quick look and discovers a woman's body with a large knife protruding from her back. A quick call to the detectives is made. The detectives find, that the body belongs to a well known young offenders probation officer.

Prints off the knife soon identify a young man, Brian Smith, who is swiftly gobbled up by John Law. Five minutes in custody and he confesses to everything. A lawyer is assigned to Smith but Smith refuses to help with his own defense. The lawyer, Vincent Ball, is just out of law school and does not want his first case to be a loss. He figures there must be a reason the lad is not cooperating and digs into his past.

The lad had been staying in a half-way house for young offenders, which just happened to be owned by the dead probation officer. He pays the place a visit for a chat with Robert Cawdron and Hilda Fenemore. The two were partners in the house with the dead woman. The first words out of Fenemore are, "anything we can do to help put the boy in prison, you can count on our help." Ball checks out the young man's rooms and interviews several of the other young offenders. One of the girls he questions, Angela Douglas, acts like she has feelings for Smith. Ball grills her some more and she admits to being Smith's girl. Ball returns to Smith and asks if Smith is maybe covering for Douglas. "Is that why you are refusing to help defend yourself?" Asks Ball.

The kid turns three shades of grey and tells Ball that the girl is in danger. Smith spills the whole story to the lawyer. It seems the probation officer, Edith Saville, was not the fine upstanding person everyone thought. Saville, along with Crawdon and Fenemore, were running a dope smuggling operation out of the half-way house. The three would threaten jail time if the kids did not help. They used the teens as couriers to and from the waterfront. "They will kill her if you don't get her away" pleads Smith.

The race to save Douglas is on with Ball putting doing a cavalry like dash to the rescue. A few left hooks and the like are needed before Crawdon and Fenemore are handed over to the police. It turns out that Crawdon and Fenemore had bumped off Saville for a bigger slice of the profits. The lad Smith was just a handy fall guy. All this in only 55 and a half mins! This low renter is by no means a world-beater, but it does work as a quick time-waster.

The cast and crew are for the most part unknown to me. The lead, Vincent Ball, I have seen in the odd film now and then. The director is Frank Marshall who seems to have only worked during 1960-63. The d of p was Paddy Aherne whose resume is equally limited. This film was made by brothers Edward and Harry Lee Danziger. The Danzigers were the UK equivalent to U.S. outfits like Monogram and PRC. They cranked out mostly low rent drivel, but, sometimes they turned out a diamond in the rough. THREE CROOKED MEN, THE GREAT VAN ROBBERY and MAN ACCUSED are all quite watch-able. (b/w)

uninspired Danziger thriller

[malcolmgsw · 5/10 · 12 April 2019]

This is a typical low budget Danziger thriller.The story is a copy of many earlier thrillers.Man cofesses to a murder,end of story.Well no its just the beginning.Vincent Ball was not charismatic enough to carry a leading role as he shows here